Linkedin Vacancy Distribution - Posting Jobs to your Linkedin Profile via the BlogLink Application

On May 25th we will be launching our Career Site product with a free days training for interested parties. We plan to build careers sites that are closely integrated with Social Media and able to distribute our client's vacancies automatically to Twitter and Facebook as well as Job Board Aggregators such as Indeed and Trovit. The aim being to distribute vacancies onto as many relevant mediums as possible with zero effort required from them. But what about Linkedin?

Well if you post vacancies on Linkedin ($195 a posting) then they will show up in your linkedin profile.


They will also show up on your company page.
As part of the research, we were keen to devise a way of having your latest jobs feed into your profile so that anyone viewing your profile can leap straight to your careers site if a vacancy catches their eye. Once again this is a long range tactic that will eventually pay off so you don't want to have to keep updating / tweaking your profile. Keep the input (your time) to a minimum, then you are under less pressure to deliver a quantifiable output (hires/applications).

Step 1 - Get an RSS feed from your Applicant Tracking Software Vendor (Recruitment Software)

If you don't have an ATS provider then you will probably not be able to take advantage of this method. But we use Hireserve and I would recommend them highly (we like them so much we actually partnered with them to sell their products to our clients).

Our RSS feed is: http://jobs.easywebrecruitment.com/rss.xml

Step 2 -Add the RSS feed as a listed website under "MyRSS Feed"

Select to edit your profile. Then select to edit the websites that are listed under your profile.


Then choose "MyRSS Feed" and input your RSS feed.


Step 3 - Viola!

Your vacancies will automatically appear in your profile.



Those of you who are very clever will realise that although this method does work there is a small problem in that our RSS feed is not listing our most recent roles but its listing them alphabetically. Do not fret. Your RSS feed should be able to list them in date order, we have already raised this with Hireserve and a quick fix will be in place soon.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will show you the second half of this strategy including how to get your vacancies automatically listing in your company page for zero effort. Watch this space....

Facebook Plots World Domination – What does it mean for Online Recruitment & Social Recruiting?

I have just finished reading an interesting article, based on a presentation at Facebook’s F8 conference, about how Facebook wants to make social connections as commonplace as hyperlinks. An understandable position for the world’s largest social network to take. But what is interesting is the method they've chosen. They are making it far easier for websites of all sizes to integrate the “like” function into their site. I checked out this article on CNN and found the Facebook thumbs up symbol at the bottom of the article.




So what does this mean for recruitment?

Well I don’t think you will see this thumbs up on Monster just yet, but I wouldn’t rule it out. It does not seem such a logical leap to let your social community know you found a job you like, in the same way that if you read an interesting article, you might want to share this with your network. Your network of friends, colleagues probably have similar interests to you. Do they have the same professional aspirations, skills, experience? Seems less likely. So sharing jobs, will for now stay limited to the one-to-one option of “send this job to a friend”, rather than the one-to-many “share with network” option.

So what does this mean for the future?

Well I think I need to clarify first that I am not an expert on Facebook or Social Recruiting. But the whole point of a blog is to give your opinion and no one really knows how this will pan out.

Here is my best guess.

This move by Facebook is not aimed at recruitment, but the internet in general. That means every site you visit could potentially integrate with facebook. Leaving aside the good/bad argument, this means corporate careers sites, job boards, job board aggregators etc are all potential partners to Facebook in the advancement of its network. I believe the vast majority of recruitment sites will integrate with facebook in some fashion. It may not be a thumbs up, and many Facebook users may not want to involve their Facebook network in their job hunt, but it will be an option and Job Boards in particular will be paying close attention to how this area develops.

Job Baskets: The Reason Recruiters Get Spammed with Irrelevant CVs

I was speaking with The IT Job Board earlier this week and they highlighted to me that they do not have a job basket function on their website. This may seem a small issue, but it is a fairly radical departure from the norm. Most job boards know that many recruitment agencies and corporate recruiters struggle to record the origins of the hires they make. Many of them seem to end up judging job boards based on the number of applications they to send to them. The IT Job Board takes the view that they would rather encourage strong applications rather than lots of applications, and I congratulate them on such an approach. Interestingly, their application numbers are not bad and we have already made placements from their service.

We have a strong applicant tracking system in place, from Hireserve, and record where each hire comes from as well as how many completely irrelevant CVs we see. This means we can focus our efforts on the right job boards as well as quickly reach decisions on new job boards we trial.

But going back to my original point, as many job boards know that their customers struggle to track applications from their board through to hire, they make sure they encourage as many applications from their job seekers as possible, to ensure their stats look good when its time to review and renew contracts.

How do they keep the applications as high as possible? They have a job basket. Some job seekers are selective in their approach, while others will throw every single job that comes back from their search into the basket and apply. Ironically, many job seekers experience the same issue in reverse when recruiters spam out their one job to 200 people from their database who happen to have one keyword on their CV.

It's also worth noting that some job boards have taken the approach of encouraging a "one click apply" system, just in case loading several jobs into a basket and a multiple application process is too timely.

In the current climate, none of the other recruiters I meet are complaining that they do not get enough applications. Plenty are complaining about the quality of their applications, and almost everyone is complaining about too many applications. Everyone that is, except me. I am a realist. I know that many of the new clients that come to us do so because having to wade through the crazy amount of irrelevant applications is simply not feasible in the modern-day, lean recruitment dept. If they do manage to review every CV, then they struggle to reply back to all candidates, perform proactive searches of online CV databases and social networking sites such as Linkedin. So I can understand why easywebrecruitment looks an attractive proposition, but I would say that, wouldn't I?

Viva la Job Basket!

Linkedin Recruiter Professional Services - Review

Linkedin has recently announced that they are rolling out their Recruiter platform to recruitment companies. Initially this product was only available to corporate recruiters. I have spoken to a number of corporate recruiters who have spent a reasonable amount of money on this product and in general their feedback has been very good. So I signed up for the first of the webinars demonstrating it.

Now I need to make an important point. If you contact Linkedin and ask them what profile do I need to upgrade to in order to "see the entire network" they will point you in the direction of the Recruiter Platform, which is their most expensive product. This is wrong and their sales staff are being very canny in how they answer this.

The good news is if you have a linkedin profile, regardless of what account type you or how many connections you have made, YOU CAN ALREADY SEE THE ENTIRE NETWORK. Yes all 52m. I have tested this myself. If you don't believe me do a search of the network just for UK profiles. If will show you a number just over 2.7m. We all see the same number of profiles. The difference being as a corporate account user I can see more of the individual's profile. However, even this is a mute point as in 99% of searches the basic account will show enough data for a recruiter to be able to make a well informed decision on whether the linkedin member is worth contacting about the vacancy.

Right, I feel better now I have got that off my chest.

The RPS (Recruiter Professional Services) is essentially the same product that corporate recruiters have been using for over a year. It looks really good and is very easy to use, and aside from being a nice and simple product it actually has lots of nice features which will enhance your average Linkedin sourcing strategy.

Including:

• You can "pool" inmails. So if multiple users are on RPS all their inmail quotas are shared in one big pot.
  
• Your search results are listed in a summarised format so you can see where the hits are against your search and easily scroll down through multiple profiles on the one page.
• You can shortlist profiles to a folder and then send inmails in batches of up to 10 (Linkedin is very careful not to make it easy for someone to spam inmails, hence the limit of 10).
  
• You can see 1,000 profiles in your results (if you get 1,000 results you are not searching correctly, but technically this is still a benefit if you really want to wade through that many profiles).
• Multiple users can share project folders and collaborate together on campaigns.
• You can add notes against profiles that stay within RPS.
  
• All individual consultant activity is logged in the account. So if someone leaves your employment you do not need access to their Linkedin account to see what roles they have been working on, what inmails they sent and notes they made.

All in all, I was a little sceptical to start off with but in the end I was impressed. It's not meant to be an ATS, although it has many similar features. If you use linkedin on a shoestring as most recruiters seem to, then it probably won't interest you. If like me you use Linkedin as a primary recruitment tool and you send a lot of inmails, then I would give serious consideration to making a purchase.

FREE Training Sessions Start Tomorrow

After a successful pilot of our online recruitment training sessions, we have decided to roll out a new series of events.

You can see the schedule for these events here.

The feedback from the candidates who attended the first series of sessions can be seen here.

The aim of the sessions is to unlock some of the secrets of online recruitment. We openly show you how we use job boards, linkedin, CV databases, job board aggregators, twitter, facebook etc to source candidates in the most cost efficient and time efficient manner. It's also an excellent opportunity to hear how other direct recruiters are currently approaching these issues. A full list of the course content can be found here.

It's a half day session totally free as long as you are a direct recruiter!

Is Social Recruiting a Primary Recruitment Method for You?

I have been completing some research recently into recruiting via Social Networking sites and I reached the conclusion that for most organisations, Social Networking mediums are definitely a secondary recruitment method…

So what do I mean by secondary recruitment method?

Why is there such media attention on these new recruitment methods?

Why are organisations not able to utilise the full potential of many of these networks now?

And can I go back to how I have recruited for the last 10 years and ignore these new mediums?

These are all questions that have been actively debated in our office. I am going to try and answer the first two questions in this article and cover the next two in a few days time.

So what do I mean by secondary recruitment method?

Primary internet recruitment methods would currently include, job boards, corporate careers sites and online CV databases. These are primary methods because they are responsible for most of the hires that come from the organisation’s internet recruitment program. In my experience, and from a straw poll of about 40 people I have spoken with so far, social recruiting is not yet making a significant impact. Only two organisations (both niche software companies) suggested they were recruiting extensively via headhunting on Linkedin.

Why is there such media attention on these new recruitment methods?

Well firstly, there is massive potential. Facebook has 250m users globally. Linkedin has over 40m users. Most Recruiters primary problem of “sourcing the talent” would be solved if it was easy to filter through this information and locate relevant people. As I will cover in my second post though, your ability to recruit just via these two mediums can vary greatly.

Secondly, the media love something new, they jump on wacky stories about the internet such as this one or about how people have lost a job via Facebook. They will bang on about the latest survey that shows X % of people will look to use their social network when looking for a job. This can work, and I’m not disputing the potential of your network to help you find your next position, but this has been happening for centuries. Social networks just make the process easier. It is an evolution not a revolution in recruitment terms.

I am a fan of social networks, particularly Linkedin (which I recruit via extensively) and I believe the revolution might be coming. It just isn’t here yet. On my next post I will answer the remaining two questions:

Why are organisations not able to utilise the full potential of many of these networks now?

And

Can I go back to how I have recruited for the last 10 years and ignore these new mediums?

The Origins of EasyWebRecruitment

At the time I started EasyWebRecruitment in January 2006, there were a couple of other companies in the flat fee internet recruitment space. Looking at the service they provided I became convinced a company with a more pro-active approach could build upon their offerings and make it easier (hence the name) for companies to use a flat fee service. Initially, the service was focused on advertising for clients’ roles, screening CVs and then laising with clients as to the shortlist we forward. Low on cost, big on value, it was a simple way to get companies recruiting online, and a great building block from which to develop a more comprehensive service. This service has evolved over the past few years to include extensive CV database searching, searching social networking sites such as Linkedin, online candidate assessment, personality profiling and even branded featured adverts on major UK job boards. If you’re reading this then you probably know how fast the recruitment market can move, and why continuing to build on our service is essential if we intend to remain at the forefront our industry.